¶ The Power of Associations
the opposite's also true if you hang around with people who don't have high standards, don't want to grow, don't want to learn, don't want to get better. That's ultimately the path that you're gonna choose to take as well, you can have everything you want in life if you will help enough people get what they want. That was the Zig Ziglar. Greatness is on the other side of all the things that you don't want to do.
It's those little habits and routines that I think create a foundation where you don't doubt yourself and you can always think positively about, you're always moving forwards. You've gotta keep working on yourself so that when the opportunities do keep coming, at one point you'll, you'll be ready to, to snatch it and grasp it.
¶ Welcome to The Science of Self
Hello listeners, and welcome back to The Science of Self, where you improve your life from the inside
¶ Meet Elliot Phillips: Entrepreneur and Author
out. I'm glad today to welcome another guest to the podcast Elliot Phillips, entrepreneur, author and teacher helper for if I could coin a phrase myself, Elliot, tell us about yourself and we'll see where the conversation goes from there.
sure. Thanks for, thanks for having me first of all, Russell.
¶ The Journey from Teaching to Entrepreneurship
So, yeah, my name's Elliot Phillips. I'm a former PE teacher from the UK and since leaving teaching in 2015. I launched a business where we help teachers so classroom teachers, academic teachers, grow their own online tutoring businesses so that we can transform the way that teachers educate the world and help 'em build the, the future generations on their, their own terms.
So you mentioned on the offer got a best selling book, teaching on your own terms, and most of our clientele is, is US based. we just came off the back of the a big event that we held in Denver most recently, a couple of weeks ago, in mid-June. And yeah, the, the business has grown extremely well since, since COVID, and we're really passionate about helping teachers, you know, become entrepreneurs.
you know, them, you know, improve how they think about things, how they think about business, and ultimately impact more students.
I have a background in teaching myself. I'm not sure how many of our listeners, I don't. I talk about my background very much. I taught high school math and science for 10 or 15 years. Certainly understand, and this was in a private school, so a lot of the frustrations I had there would be multiplied many times maybe by orders of magnitude for teachers in large public school organizations.
But Elliot, I'm gonna ask you to reassure our listeners that this is not a podcast generated or designated just for teachers. As I said in our run up to the show before we got online, the frustrations that have applied to a teacher in an organization could apply to anybody in any business at any time. Do you agree with
¶ The Importance of Self-Improvement and Masterminds
that?
Absolutely. You know, I'm, I'm a part of many, like a few, a fair few different masterminds and so the, the mastermind coaching programs that, that I'm in. Our connective business owners in all different niches, all different industries, and it's a massive part of, of the process, right? Is is self-improvement, mental performance.
It's, you know, I think Tony Robbins says, right, it's not, it's 20% and psychology, And so, you know, the business owners that, I'll speak to struggle with the same problems with their own clients. And know, I think it's the foundation right of you. You've got to be a great mentor performer before you can get the the actual end result that you want for sure.
Mastermind, you said that as if it's an organization and it sounds like an organization I should be familiar with. Tell us more about that.
I just meant some coaching programs. I mean, so we'll generally just coin the term, I guess, mastermind, where it's a collective of, you know, different business owners at different, different points on their journey coming together and we will do in-person meetups and so we'll just have the opportunity to collaborate and share what's working well. Again, whether that is. Self, self-improvement routines, business related growth strategies or whatever it might be.
Just the coming together of, of business owners in a room instead
Okay.
just being on Zoom all the time, which is kind of how, how we operate these days, right? And so it,
Right,
really does create a bit of a shift when you get to see people in person and, and just being in that, that environment with around other people who, who want to grow and do well.
absolutely. Is that searching my mind here, but I'm not sure. Is that the same phrase that Napoleon Hill used in Think and Grow
¶ The Influence of Mentors and Books
Rich, the Mastermind group? He talked about having a, are you familiar with the book, first of all?
I was just thinking it's been, that was one of the first that I read, I think when I left teaching back in It's been a while. So you, you, you could be correct. Yeah.
I'm not sure if that's the phrase, but listeners, that haven't read or listened to a Napoleon Hills book. The concept is a group of, of basically a board of directors internalized, and you put together a group of people that you respect their opinions of and you ask advice from them. If you're not familiar with that, check out Napoleon Hills book, think and Grow Rich Along with others that he is written it.
say where you become the average of the five people you spend most of your time with, right? Or you become a reflection of your inner circle, so to speak, right? So the more people you, you can surround yourself with that. And I think that's the essence of the, the book, right? It's getting around or part of it, around people who are also doing well, who want to grow, who want to win, and. Ultimately, you know, rubs off, rubs off on you.
Whereas the opposite's also true if you hang around with people who don't have high standards, don't want to grow, don't want to learn, don't want to get better. That's ultimately the path that you're gonna choose to take as well, you know?
I believe it was Zig Ziglar said, you are the person you're becoming, the person you will be in. This is a, a wrong quote, but in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read. And of course our society has changed. Technology has changed that because I can interact with a great number of people in a great number of ways. But the concept still applies. What we, the people we meet, the books we read, the material we're exposed to determine who we're going to be.
I like the con, the the.
zig zig zig la co. I like to read in the morning to myself. I'm
Oh, great.
I'm just trying to load it up.
I.
I've got a few different ones, but I've got a favorite. I, so. You're obviously clearly very rehearsed in, you know, the, the self-development. 'cause you've got all these Napoleon Hills Ziglar, and I think that's really important, those little principles that they've got. Just click in and just remind you how to to operate here. Here, here's one. can have everything you want in life. If you help enough people get what they want does.
I don't think I've ever heard that one. Yeah, read that one again.
Yeah, here we go. You, you can have everything you want in life if you will help enough people get what they want. That was the Zig Ziglar. So I've got that on my little list of principles I like to read each day in, in the Morning. Rowan's obviously a great one as as well. Yeah. Tony Robbins, biggest seat key to success is hunger. You know, little things like this. Oh, here's, here's a great one. I love this one. Greatness is on the other side of all the things that you don't want to do.
Discipline buys you
very good.
what you want. Failures a requisite for success. All of these ones, you know I think I've got a list about 48 here. And so just little things that I'll, I'll touch on each, each day in, in the morning, like who you're saying about,
Those are, those are great. On the other side of the things you don't wanna do, I am currently narrating a book actually for this for Peter Hollins, who is the source of the material on the science of self. I. I take that back. I'm working on some, some YouTube videos on the book.
And the book is entitled How to Do Things You Hate getting through those things that you don't want to do, and finding the motivation and the, the mindset to attack the things you don't want to do, but that have to be done. Interesting how so many things are tailing in in this short conversation so far
Yeah.
many other conversations
¶ Overcoming Discomfort for Success
we've had. It's great.
Well, I think that's what most, that, that's part of it, right, is most people can get what they want, but we're just not, we're just wired to do what's easy. You know? It's so much easier just to do what you know and keep doing that because yeah, it's, it's easy and, and stuff that's hard. It's not enjoyable. I think ultimately it becomes enjoyable becomes because you become better at it, right?
And so the more times you do something that's uncomfortable, eventually it becomes easy, you get good, and then you just do it consistently. I think that's the same with just so many things.
Absolutely. Yeah. The, the short term investment in discomfort that pays off again, in orders of magnitude and long term comfort, you have to get outta your comfort zone to accomplish anything really. I.
Whereas fitness related stuff or what, whatever it might be, you know business related stuff, whether it's just starting the business, whether it's calling your leads, whatever it might be, whether it's making a podcast, I. You know, trying to get your first house, what, what, whatever it is, going to the gym the first time if you wanna lose weight. I remember I went to a, a yoga one time.
This is a few, fair, few years ago now, and yoga wasn't really my thing, and I don't, I'm not particularly flexible, but I remember the, the instructor clearly realized that, and so they pulled me up and gave me a lot of feedback. I just really didn't like it, but I, so I didn't go back. Right. But everyone says how beneficial it it was, and I'm sure if I went back for the next month, I'm sure I would've become better at it and would've got more comfortable, and I would've probably enjoyed it.
But now that's just one instance. I know for me personally, execute and I didn't continue. I didn't push because it was hard, you know? And I think we've all, we'll, we'll all place ourself in in situations like that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah. They tell you it's not about, you don't have to be flexible to do yoga, but I've done enough to know that you don't have to be, but it's not really enjoyable if you're not.
No,
It's very difficult.
that's right. Yeah. Yeah. It, it wasn't too fun. For me,
So that leads me into one of a question I wanted to ask early on. You were a PE teacher to start with. Can you go back a little bit in your life and share some insights into your mindset, maybe what directed you into education, and I guess this was in the UK so your system is quite a bit different than, than it would be in the US as I'm familiar with. But tell us a little bit about your runup into education and how long you taught, when you got into it, and just some background there.
yeah, sure. Russell. So I think it was just ingrained in me my, my mom's dad. He was a French teacher and taught at international schools in the, firstly in the uk and then. Internationally, and my mom's a teacher. She, she actually retired in the summer, but she just loves it so much. She is, she's gone back and she was well overdue retirement And I think a lot of teachers are like that, and she just loves it.
so I think it was just kind of ingrained and I was so into sport and I think every kid's got that, that dream of becoming a professional sports player. Right. And so for me it was, it was football or soccer as you'd say in the states. And so. You know, I ultimately, you know, everyone, every kid like said, gets their heart broken when they realize the dream isn't gonna come true. so I'd realized that. So it was more along the lines of, well, could I do that involves sport?
So for me and PE teaching and teaching anything related to sport was the, the natural kind of path, I think. And plus we said, my mom. Her dad was teacher, so it was just kind of in the blood in the family, I, I remember I went to, after I left school, did the Sports Performance Diploma and then a Bachelor of Science in Sports performance as well. That then led me into to teaching and also building a extracurricular sports company as well. At the time, my wife, we moved to London and.
Had a couple more years there from 2013 to 2015. And then at that point it was, you know, I just wanted to travel, I think at that point. And teachers don't get paid a lot as you as, as you know, you said you were teaching in a private school. It was, how could I do more? And I think I was just thinking very entrepreneurial. I was trying to build all sorts of businesses in the school staff room, selling electronic goods. Clothing companies, nutrition stores online.
And yeah, I was doing it in the school staff room on, on on some days building all these businesses. so I just went into personal training whilst I kind of got my I guess bearings together, what I really wanted to do. And then I, you know, I met quite a few people, some good mentors.
In London, being in a big city to, to kind of, you know, they put their arm around me and, and help guide me, I think, and I'm still really appreciative that I still meet up with a lot, a lot of them not as clients anymore, as, as friends. I remember one, it was Christmas 20 16, 1 of the, one of the clients had, he gave me this book. And he says, I think you should spend the Christmas break reading this. I think it's gonna, I think it's gonna help you.
And this was a super successful guy, one of top entrepreneurs actually in the, in, in the uk. And he he gave me this book and I read it over Christmas. I was like, wow, there's people running like this online. I'm here doing it in person. So I ended up hiring a mentor, a coach from, from this book. I didn't know if it was true at the time, I'll be honest. I was reading all these kind of case studies and stories of people achieving these amazing results in their life and their business.
I remember reading it thinking, surely these guys can't, can't be producing these type of results and this type of revenue inside of their businesses online. I'll give it a go. I'll give, give them, I'll book in for a call and I'll, I'll see what happens.
I remember then I jumped on the call with someone just after Christmas and I enrolled into this Mentorship Pro program and just having a mentor at that particular point that I'd invested into myself, I think was just And business went pretty well like that. But I was still, you know, I was actually still doing it in person.
I hadn't leveraged online at that point, and, but it just opened my eyes into like what was possible in, in terms of business with the right strategies, with the, with the right mentorship, right coaching. And, you know, I had, I had a few different mentors since then, and I just remember if I could pinpoint how well the teacher project's done now. It would go back to that 2016 CRI Christmas just being handed a book that unlocked everything.
I, I really think that, you know, just opened, it, opened my eyes to take the leap and into myself and, you know, expand my goals, I think. 'cause I could see other people doing things that
¶ Elliot's Early Entrepreneurial Ventures
I wanted to do.
So even when you first began teaching, you were very entrepreneurial. You're, you're running a business through to your fellow teachers and other people while. You were learning how to teach. That had to be a pretty difficult time.
Yeah. Well, I think the funniest one is I, I was, when I was nine years old, and this would be like the, or 10, 10 years old. This would be like the sixth grade or fifth grade or something. I remember I spotted this guy. I. Or, or this, this young lad who was in the class with me, and he was really good at drawing the South Park characters like Kaman, Kenny, I, what was the other guys? Stan, Kyle, Jeff, all these guys.
But we were all into, when we were like nine years old, and I spotted that he was really good at drawing them. So I, I paid him some money. I can't remember how much it was. It was probably about five pence. 10 pence. him to draw 'em for me. Then I would stencil them. them in and sell them for about a pound in in, in year five around the class. I think that was, that's my favorite entrepreneurial kind of, kind of venture. I.
It goes way back. I find it interesting, and I think you've said this and I might've missed it. I don't want to assume that I, that I heard it correctly while you were teaching. You said you were, you were meeting this successful businessman. I found it very difficult during my tenure as a teacher. And also very intimidating to meet people outside other than the parents.
And I, I, I tell you, I did meet several parents during my 10 or 15 years that had impact on my life because they were businessmen. They were successful in the community, or people worthy of being, you know, a role model. But you made it sound like you had interactions with a lot of people. How did, did all that all come about through some of your side hustles, for lack of a better word?
well, what, what I was saying was I went into personal training 'cause it was a, a natural kind of progression from, you
Okay.
into
I'm sorry I missed that part. Yeah.
fitness at the time. So when I left teaching in 2015, I. So I could kind of figure out, I was going to the gym a lot at that point as well. I also had a, I'd done a personal training qualification part-time at the weekends through, and I had the degree in sports performance. So it was something that I was kind of pretty well versed in anyway. And so I think it was that decision that enabled me to meet so many in, in a city like London. I dunno if it would've been possible in city or town.
In, in the uk I think it was very, I was very fortunate to be somewhere like London, where all of a sudden you've got a couple of referrals and you could be meeting some very, very successful people. And I think that's the beauty of living in a. A New York or a, a London or a, you know, these big, these big cities is the connections. And so a lot of people can
Right.
online these days. And going back to the, coaching programs that I was saying before, just getting around other people who are wanting to grow. so, yeah, that was definitely a big stepping stone is, is that personal training opened up a lot of doors. Not just personal training wise, but just to connect with people.
And that takes effort for an individual who. You know, may working a full-time job. Our listeners are young professionals you know, trying to move up in a company so you're, you're dealing with things on every day and going home. Probably have family responsibilities and financial responsibilities, and rather than binging Netflix or whatever the current temptation might be, it takes getting outta that comfort level to go out and, and.
As you say, expand, you know, improve yourself by meeting more people and spending time with higher performers.
Absolutely. Well, well, people can do that online these days, right? There's so many communities where they can listen to this podcast, for example, and if there's some sort of community attached to it or, or somewhere the. They can connect with the, the other listeners, you know, that would, that would be huge. 'cause they're the people who are clearly serious and. Prioritize listening to, to similar things, right?
So there's definitely gonna be some connection now, or even, even you have these groups, I think, don't you want, is it meetup.com something? Yes. Things like that. And instead of going to the, the pub like we have in UK or the, the Brew pub or whatever, in the, in the states could be going to like a meetup or something, and there'll be individuals there who, and it might not be, it could just be the one conversation you have.
That creates a connection, that creates a referral that links you somewhere. And I think it is a lot about still as well who you know to, and that only happens from moving or trying to move in in the right circles.
Did you hear me? I said meet up
Yeah.
in the 20 minutes, 30 minutes. We've been talking. I'm already trying to adopt the, the the accent meetup for us for the Yanks that are listening, which are the majority of our listeners, I believe. You mentioned your book. Titled teaching on your Own Terms, but we didn't talk too much about it. Can you go into that a little bit? Tell us what we might expect from that book? What an average if there, if the person is not a teacher, is it something they should pursue or is it
I think it's applicable to any business
great?
any, any route that people are looking to take, particularly the start of the, the book. I call it the Five to Thrive. And this was a routine I actually took from teaching. And so it was more of a mental performance routine. And so the first chapter is about this five to thrive routine that I used to adopt and just set myself up for the day.
And it would be little things like gratitude practices just mental rehearsals, also then physical performance as well, getting my body ready for the day you know, nutrition, how I was fueling the body. As well to, you know, not just to to look good, but to feel good and to have the energy to be able to do more. And so I think, you know, a lot of that came from being into fitness, being into sport, being a PE teacher, and, and having the sports performance degree.
But then a lot of it is also the data tracking and habit tracking that I would talk about in that routine to, to manage what I was doing, you know, with my routines and trying to be a hype. By performer. And so whilst perhaps I wasn't where I wanted to be back then, I, you know, definitely still not now. It's those little habits and routines that I think create a foundation where you don't doubt yourself and you can always think positively about, you're always moving forwards.
And so, so that was something that was, think in inside of the book is, is great for anybody, you know, it's just how you start your day and I'm a big believer of that. And a, a lot of people. Out there and all of these, you know, successful entrepreneurs and coaches and people perhaps we will look up to, they all preach that as well. And so, know, that was something that served me really well. And then the rest of the book is really about, I. I wrote it in 2023. So it's a couple years now.
And so, but at that point we'd been doing this three years. I think we'd worked with this five, a couple of thousand teachers or something like that at that point. So we'd seen a lot. And so it was really writing around like everything that we'd seen work in or in the businesses of our clients and how they could attract clients. And so I was just sharing that around.
You know, how we helped our clients get results, enrolled students deliver an amazing experience for their clients in, in that case, students. they were the same principles that I used in my own business when I was doing personal training, and I simply just took that into the online tutoring space as well. And so they're applicable for everything. You know, see, I, I think people will get some stuff out of it. Absolutely.
¶ The Teacher Project: Origins and Insights
tell us a little bit more about the teacher project itself. How did this come about? Did you, were you still in teaching when you started doing this? Were you out of teaching? Had you written the book already? I'm not
Yeah,
perfectly clear on the
sure.
timeline.
so this was 2017. I hired a coach to help me take the
I.
training online, right? And I took that online. I tried previously to take it online and. I hadn't been able to and it was because I was trying to figure everything out on my own right. How to run the online business i'd, I'd hired a mentor previously, as I'd explained from reading that initial book, who'd helped me develop it in person that was growing very nicely. I wanted to transition it online, and I tried and failed multiple times for about nine months.
I then ended up hiring another coach here's why you've been failing. You've been trying to target everybody. Who are you really passionate about helping with this? Who do you really wanna help and serve? teachers,
¶ The Teacher Fit Project: Origins and Challenges
and I said, serve the teachers. And so initially it was called Teacher Fit project and I was helping teachers in the schools their productivity, their energy, how they were just showing up and looking after their own physical and mental wellbeing so they could show up better for their students and improve their, their work-life balance and, and about, this was probably March, 2019.
I was at a conference in San Francisco and someone said to me, I, I was saying a lot of teachers just can't afford buy my coaching program online. And I said, it makes sense because if I was a teacher, I wouldn't have been able to in invest what I was charging for the coaching program. So they said to me, so you've got a way, you've gotta find a way to help the teachers make more money. And so that got me thinking. I'm essentially teaching sport, which I was teaching in the school online.
I'm gonna take the maths teachers, the science teachers, the French teachers, what geography, humanities, and help them teach their students online. spent 2019 putting together this, this program of what I thought was going to work and to be honest. So I didn't dare launch it and press, press go. So no one's gonna want this. And because I'd already tried doing it for the clientele I did have in the teacher fit project, they said, no, we're not interested in that.
I thought, oh, I thought you definitely would be, but they weren't. And so they obviously were just interested in the fitness side and, and what they'd signed up for. And so this
¶ Pivoting to Online Education During the Pandemic
wasn't appealing to them. then it was when the pandemic happened, course all the schools all over the world shut down. And because I had already learned how to get clients in that online business before, I'd just take the same principles and I'll launch this side to the business and it was a lot of good timing for sure, but also I was ready at that time to.
To do a two and then it's grown really well since, and, you know, we're really proud of the amount of teachers that we've, able to serve and help since, since then. So just had our five year anniversary in March.
You are the. I said this in a, in a call yesterday with another podcast guest. I said
¶ The Importance of Delegation and Surrounding Yourself with the Right People
it was the poster child. And I don't want to sound, make that sound like a bad thing in any way, but you're a great example of expanding yourself by surrounding yourself with the right people, whether hiring them or getting them to do tasks that you know, you struggle with or getting advice or delegating. So oftentimes.
I think part of the, a drawback maybe to the entrepreneur, especially when they start to see some success again in my somewhat personal experience, but in seeing others, is that an entrepreneur has all these ideas and they wanna do it all themselves. And that's, at some point you can't scale, you can't do that. And it's very difficult for a lot of people to realize this is a good idea. This can happen, but I can't make it happen, but I can get somebody to make it happen for me.
And it's, it sounds like that you've done a lot of that. And it's a great piece of advice, I think for anybody struggling with most anything. There's someone out there has an answer for any issue that you're facing personally, right.
Agree. I agree. Think we're all guilty of it. We all think it's quicker, faster if, if we do it on our own, but you know I. Who I think it's Brian. Brian Tracy. Is it, it might be Brian Tracy or Jim Collins, who wrote the book about Good to Great. And it's about getting the right people on, on board you know. You can go far on your own or you can go fast on your own, but with others you'll go far type of thing. I can't remember the exact well, but it's
No, that's great.
along those
Yeah.
Yeah.
Are you familiar with this? A bit of a side note, are you familiar with the book by outliers? By, and I've forgotten his name, suddenly I. He was a, a reporter for the, I believe, the New York Times and,
heard of the book, but I haven't read it so that, so that's why, you know, I haven't immediately snapped and said, Hey,
can't, Malcolm Gladwell. Yeah.
Okay. Okay, cool.
Malcolm Gladwell and Outliers talks about how people become hyper successful. Uh, it's a fantastic book as most of his are. But one of the biggest elements of success in, in addition to having the talent and the drive and whatever else, you know, the, the mental abilities and emotional support and all those
¶ The Role of Luck and Readiness in Success
types of things. There is in almost every instance, if not every instance of element of luck or happenstance or opportunity that came along, do you think if it. Do you subscribe to, to Malcolm's concept of there having to be a certain amount of luck to reach that level of hyper success?
I, I agree. Like I think you've got, I think you've. Everyone has a lucky, a few lucky strikes, and you'll get so many, but one of the things I also said was I felt I was ready to take it. And so a lot of people might have them they might have had these opportunities, but they didn't realize it was an opportunity because they didn't grasp it. so that's just because they weren't ready at the time. You know, like you can't let a few failures knock you down blame and say it's all about just luck.
You've gotta keep working on yourself so that when the opportunities do keep coming, at one point you'll, you'll be ready to, to snatch it and grasp it.
Very good, very good. Yeah. Just because you missed one doesn't mean you have to miss another. There will be another most likely in at some level. That's very good. Lemme just look at, I have a few
gonna
pat questions that I,
Gladwell book down. I've been told it a few times now, the outliers. So I'll I'll make sure to, to grab a copy. Normally that's what
yeah.
It multiple times and
I've never been disappointed in any of his material, including his podcast, which, if it's, to be honest, I don't know if it's still in production. I haven't haven't listened to it for a while, but some fascinating studies. That he delves
¶ Book Recommendations and Their Impact
into. Along those lines, you have a book, you have your website. Do you have a, a YouTube channel where this information or some related information is available? Do you do a podcast? Do you have other
we
forms of social media our listeners should be aware of? I.
main channel that we're, we're really trying to focus on for our organic presence and branding at the moment is, is YouTube. It's just Elliot Phillips.
Okay.
Yeah.
Elliot Phillips. So listers, you wanna look there for further information as well?
But yeah, the book I just finished reading this morning was one by Jocko Willink around
Mm-hmm.
leadership, and found that really good. The Navy Seal guy. So his extreme ownership one. This was a good few years ago now. And someone recommended me. I saw it at an event I went to, someone said it in the presentation that they, they get all of their leaders in the team, or who becomes a leader, send them out this, this book. And I thought, oh, I only, I'd only picked up his extreme ownership. I didn't know he had any other ones. And so I just finished that this morning and it was good read.
I enjoyed it. And just, we were talking about how some of the principles in my book were transferable to. Other industries. And same for him. He was obviously explaining how the same principles that he took in the, the Navy Seals order to lead the lead, the teams and the platoons that he was, he was in charge of, you know, he applied them into business as well. And so a lot of good frameworks in there for, for leading teams or just being a better leader.
Even if it's just for your family, you know? And so there was a lot of all around communication and yeah, it was a really good, pretty good book.
You know, we've, we don't normally cover so, or, or refer to so many publications. In my conversations, and this is, this is great because we've listed so many that our listeners I expect know of, but probably as you did with Jocko's book, maybe didn't take advantage of it right away or didn't realize there was more. We've listed five or six. And one of my pat questions when I run out of other information is to find out what books have had the biggest impact on a person.
Maybe, maybe in two ways. What's on your bookshelf now that you've just finished or trying to get to, but in the grand scheme of things over the last, you know, over your adult life, are there any of the books we haven't talked about that you think you'd like to mention and suggest for our listeners?
One of the, the main ones that we actually send out to our clients when they when they enroll into our teacher coaching program is the, the one thing by Gary Keller, and we send that out because I feel that I. A lot of people just don't get out of their in, in a play, just don't get out of their own way, and they don't move forwards is because they're trying to focus on too many things. You brought this up at the start when you're talking about entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs trying to do so much, and Gary Keller breaks it down really well. And I remember when I read this book, I use a lot of this. This was back in when I was teaching, 20 15, 20 16. It might have been just after I finished teaching 2016. But. Still implement a lot of the principles, and it's just really making sure that you. You, you've probably heard the saying, less is more. Right?
And just focusing on one thing each and every single day, clearing your schedule and moving the needle forwards like that. So you avoid that kind of analysis, pro paralysis type of thing. And we've just found that to be so effective and we'll give it to our, our clients, the teachers, and it really helps 'em prioritize building the business whilst they're still in the classroom, for example. So if, if the listeners here have got.
Projects that they want to work on, but they're, they're working their businesses or whatever it is they're looking to try. And it might not just be a project, it could be family things it is you are, you're aspiring to do. I found that book was huge. It's just making sure you can get out of your own way, simplify things, and even just get 1% better every single day. And that, that's what it's about. One, one Thing by Gary Keller.
It's a great recommendation. That's not one that's come up in my conversations before and I'm not familiar with the book, so it's something I certainly need to, to look for and take advantage of. Thank
¶ Influential People and Life Decisions
you for that. Along those lines, you, you talked about your parents being teachers. Obviously your parents have a big impact on everybody for good or bad. Maybe good in some areas and bad in others. I don't. What other people you, you talked about a mentor that you had are, is there anyone else that's had a big impact on your life, maybe that came along at the most difficult time and pointed you in the right direction or gave you that one piece of advice that you needed at that point in time? I.
I say my wife, actually, I got married pretty young at 23, and I think at that particular time, you know, I. I was going out with, know, a group of friends, but every week it'd be going out and doing, you know, like as, as young guys do, and they still do it to this stand. I think Greg, have they not grown up these, these guys and I'll, I've fought that for obviously, you know, best part of a decade now. That, you know, they're 40 years old, whatever, and they're still doing the same thing.
So we were, when we were early twenties, and so had I not found my wife at that particular point in time, maybe I wouldn't have gone on that trajectory. It, it was her, she was the reason why I moved to London. If I didn't meet her, would I have ever moved to London and would that have ever have even opened up all of those doors? I dunno. know? And so that was a real key, key moment.
¶ Cultural Reflections: Comparing Cities
I think
You mentioned London before, and I meant to say it. I grew up in Chicago moved away as soon as I graduated college. I moved down to Atlanta. I've been to London once, been to New York once, spent a good time, a good bit of time in Chicago, in the city itself. But it really is something different just in the week that I was in London, so amazingly different from, it reminded me more of Toronto really than anywhere else.
We just brought
really
member
just.
and he was in Toronto and we were speaking about London. He's actually German, but he'd been living in Toronto a fair few years, and he said, you know, yeah, know Toronto. I'm in Toronto. I said, what's it like? Then he goes, do you know London? yeah. He like, yeah, just like Linda.
I wouldn't say just like, but they remind me of each other more than in, than the American cities I've been to. But the opportunities presented in a situation like that really quite amazing. London is and, and is, I. Astonishing. And part of it is cultural. You know, anything in the United States that's over 150 years old is ancient.
Hmm.
And then you get to London and it's like, well, the new buses are a hundred years old. I, you know, I, I say that facetiously, and it, it's not meant in a, as a, as an insult in any way. London is very impressive. And the things you can see and do and learn there I I just really, it was almost unimaginable for me as a. As a US citizen seeing some of the things, there is a fantastic place to visit.
Is funny you said it 'cause we always wonder that, we'll, we'll, we'll visit London frequently still. We, we've moved an hour outside. love it so much and we'll, we'll go back, you know, and I. I'll speak to my dad about it and we'll say, well, I wonder what like the, because we really love coming to the American cities as well, right? We love coming to America and we love the New York. Just being in Denver was, was fantastic.
And you know, all, all of the cities there, I think they, they just feel, they feel bigger than the UK cities. I really love that. I feel the energy, but we feel that in London too. And I think that's the only city in the UK that has that. feel. And so we'll always end up saying, I wonder what, 'cause we love coming to the American cities much. What do the Americans think about when they come to London? How do they perceive it?
And that'll always be something we'll, we'll bring up in our conversations when we're there.
Yeah, the American cities, I've, I've had the opportunity to travel some with business and, and personally as well. And I love the fee. Each city has their own kind of vibe, kind of, you know, feel Denver. I. La, you know, Vegas, all, all have their own personality to it. And not to take away from any of those because everyone, everyone is unique and everyone has something, every city has something to bring to it that a visitor. Have you been to Hawaii, Honolulu?
Not Honolulu, but Hawaii in general, to me is,
been there.
is one of the most this is going way back, but first time we landed in Hawaii. You're talking about a, a feel that no one that you don't get anywhere else. I've never seen anywhere else. You land in Hawaii, you're walking through the airport, there's a roof, but no walls. So the entire airport my memory, the entire airport is just open to the weather. Of course, the weather is perfect. That's the most, the most unusual feeling that I've come across.
Yeah, That sounds great.
We had some, I worked for a large cement company who that is no longer well, has been absorbed by an even larger cement company. It was actually based in uk. And we had some visitors come over from the UK from Malaysia for a seminar that we were putting on. And it was funny because some of the guys from the UK thought, and we were in Atlanta. And they said, you know, when we get done this afternoon, we would finish up at four or five with our meetings.
He said, when we get done this afternoon, I was wondering if we could, we could head on up to New York City or, or something thinking it was you know, we could make that in an hour, an hour or two drive, spend an hour or two in New York Drive back. It's like, well, we could, it's about a. Nine to 11 hour drive. I said, what do you mean? Just the scale, the size of things really threw off some of our European visitors from
The
what, what they were used to in there.
same on the maps when, when we're in the states, because in the UK or look what's the same distance on the map is so much smaller. You think, ah, that's a 10 minute walk or something like that. That's, that's doable. We'll do the same. I, I don't do anymore. 'cause we've got used to it after all these years. But initially it was like, oh, it's just around the corner. Then you actually punch the, the thing in to make sure you're not going wrong and you the location and get the direction.
It comes up 40 minutes and it's, it's like, wow, okay. Uber.
More than I bargained for.
Yeah. But,
Well.
that's great. You said about Hawaii, I call them impact cities or places. These type of places that just the energy and the, the vibe just. you get to another level. London's one for me, New York and Rio in Brazil. But the free,
Hmm.
free impact cities that where you get there and it's just the environment, the energy of the place and, and how things happen. Take you to the, the next level.
Great, great Rio. We're getting close to the hour.
I.
so I want to have a final few questions that I always put out there for the users, and I want our, our listeners, and I want to have plenty of time for you to elaborate. But no pressure for you to continue on for seven minutes if you don't have
No
the, the desire to do so.
I got.
But my last two questions, I'll give them both to you and then just let you run with them in
¶ Daily Habits and Final Advice
whatever way you want. What are some of the indisposable habits that you have? if there's something I missed, if there's a point of information that I missed that you'd like to, to tag on the end or a closing piece of advice, a final recommendation you might make for something for our listeners. Can you combine all those points into a, a few paragraphs and I think when you get through that we'll be pretty much on the target for time-wise.
So in terms of the, the mantras, I normally adapt it each year to see if there's anything I can add into it. The, the general framework stays the same, but just how can I enhance it? So, so this year, normally the first thing is always. Silence for me with AirPods in just to really get grounded. And so I always listen to Han and Zimmer's inception song from the soundtrack time. It's the first thing I listen to every single day.
And you know, when you load up your, your phone and it says most listen to songs or whatever on Apple been top for, for years. And so I listen to that every single day about fail silence. And this year what I've done is I'm using a red light therapy panel. I'm doing the, the silence in, in front of the red light therapy to help with recovery you know, and just improve overall wellbeing. And so I'm, I'm using that.
And then from there, it's, I'm writing 3D three things down every day without fail in my journal. Three things. I'm grateful for writing the one thing down that I'm gonna do today. Sometimes I'll do it the night before but. If I haven't, I, after I wrote the three things, it'll be that one thing from Gary Keller, so I'll, I'll implement that. then really from there, it's daily stoic, read the, the latest day in the, the daily stoic and, and then it's straight downstairs to read.
And so that'll be the next thing is study. And so you asked as well, what would be one thing, advice. As well for the, the listeners. I was just gonna say, it'd be invest into learning and don't stop trying to learn and improve yourself. And so that first 30 minutes study for me never gets missed in, in the day. So to read for other people. It doesn't have to be reading, right? It could be listening to an audiobook. It could be.
Watching a YouTube video or listening to the podcast could be anything like that, could be listening to this. I like to read and so I just make sure I've got that study in there, that self-improvement. So that'd be the one thing is like, don't ignore that. Like, work on you first. Yeah. So, so that would be that. And then from there it's the, like I said, the exercise. And so for example. Today.
I didn't exercise how I would normally exercise 'cause just feel inside of my, my body felt really tired. We'd, we'd been away for two weeks in Denver for our event. So I hadn't had my usual routine and so mon, this Monday was the first day I got back into it, and so my body was feeling a little bit sore after Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. so I just went for a walk today and then went to the pool and did a swim. And so that wouldn't be usually what I would do.
But it's still the principle of doing something physically to, to, to set yourself up. So that's kind of the, the morning mantra or whatever that, that I have. You know, and so, so yeah, that's foundation. The, the solid routine being able to keep going even when things aren't going well, is just relying on that to, to get yourself in the right frame of mind.
That's great. It, it astounds me as I go through more and more in conversations and interviews how things repeat themselves and the, the process of what successful people do on a regular basis. And I. The, the, the discipline that they bring to it, but the actual, the actual things they're doing, the mindfulness, the practices. You do, I hadn't heard of Red light therapy. I'll have to look at that. And many other things there that are great pieces of advice
¶ Conclusion and Final Thoughts
for our listeners. So listeners, this was Elliot Phillips author, entrepreneur, businessman, coach, PE teacher husband, father. Did we cover that?
free. Yep.
Father of three. Thank you so much for your time. I learned a lot. I enjoyed this immensely. I hope you have great success with your, your book and the teacher project. And thank you for the work you're doing for the teachers that so oftentimes they go unrecognized and they don't have resources. So I think you're providing a great service to a well deserving audience. Listeners, this was the Science of Self, Elliot Phillips.
Don't forget to check him out on YouTube as well as is it the teacher project.com.
Io.
Dot I thank you very much and listeners, we'll see you again next week. Thanks for joining us today.